Displaying items by tag: RIAA

Time for the Google news (much like many of our combined reports of Apple’s doings). This time we have a couple of things to talk about. The first is the penultimate decision in the Google Vs Oracle case, followed by a complaint by the RIAA about how little Google is doing to flight piracy and rounding things out with a complaint against Microsoft and Nokia in the EU for patent trolling. Sounds like a lot of fun so let’s get started.

We have been following the Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) since it first leaked into the public eye. The agreement (as we have said) appears to be only about counterfeit physical goods, but anyone who really takes a look at the few leaked details (which have been kept pretty secret) will find that it is more about copyright law and protecting the IP of the software and entertainment industry (mostly the US portion of it) and restricting countries rights to enact and change their own laws outside of the agreement.

Well, we knew this would happen when we first heard about the case, but it seems that the lawyers defending MegaUpload have finally dropped the jurisdiction bomb on the US DoJ. The issue at hand is the same one that extended to the Pirate Bay when they were continually harassed by the content industry. If a corporation or individual does not commit the crime on US soil (or one of its protectorates) or have an agent that commits or assists in the commission of the crime they have no legal jurisdiction. In the case of MegaUpload they have no offices in the US and never have.

In not so shocking news another country has followed Britain’s example and has ordered the site The Pirate Bay blocked at the ISP level. This is the second time a “democratic” government has imposed an outright ban on the Torrent and Magnet Hosting Web Site. It represents a major win for the Entertainment industry that sees The Pirate Bay as their arch nemesis.

In what has to be an upset for Google’s YouTube video service German courts found that YouTube was indeed responsible for the copyrighted material posted by users. The findings of the court are frightening in more ways than just the big check that Google will be writing to pay for the Copyright infringement that happened due to users of the popular video service.

There was something of a victory for MegaUpload and in many ways supporters of a free and open internet. The judge presiding over the case has stated that the case may never actual go to trial because the FBI and those backing their actions made a tiny, little, blunder that has turned out to not be so tiny. In their effort to send a message the FBI and other agencies in the US government have taken a very firm stance on the situation a stance which could eventually come back to haunt them.

If you ever needed evidence of how badly laws like PIPA and SOPA (and of course ACTA) could and would be abused you have to look no further than some of the laws that are already in place. We have shown you how the lawyers for the entertainment industry have (and continue to do so) violated due process and circumvented even court orders to get what they want. Now we have Spain’s Sinde Law as a direct show of how eager the content “owners” are to pull down sites or simply make complaints.

After both SOPA and PIPA were publicly shelved the US government did what it always does. It finds a way to do what it wants, but by hiding it in other bills or (as is becoming more common) using trade agreements to by-pass laws altogether. This is exactly what we are seeing with ACTA and TPP. These two trade agreements are probably some of the most dangerous bits of work that we have read about in a very long time.

Unless you have been under a rock for the past few months you know that the big media companies have been pushing the copyright laws quite heavily. A pair of very dangerous laws call the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA) were just dropped (for now) on after a very large Internet protest that ended up with many major sites blacking out for the day. We were also involved in that protest as the vague wording of the law was terrifying to say the least.

Well, well, well. It looks like a single judge in the US is finally asking the right questions and perhaps coming to the same conclusions that many in the press and the consumer advocate sector have understood for some time. What is the conclusion? Just the simple fact that the MPAA and the RIAA have been using the US Judicial System as nothing more than a collection agency.  The Judge in question is Judge Bernard Zimmerman of the Northern District of California. While looking over a case that was filed there (On The Cheap, LLC vs Does 1-5011) Judge Zimmerman began to feel that this blanket BitTorrent suit might be little more than a nice fishing expedition for some easy money.  

With this in mind the Judge asked the lead Attorney Ira M. Siegal to reveal how much he has made from threats made through the court system. Mr. Seigel failed to respond on time and then refused to respond with the information requested by the Judge (a move that would get most thrown in jail for contempt). Instead Mr. Siegel chose to bash the Electronic Frontier Foundation and a couple of others for good measure.

But more than just the monetary issue at hand Judge Zimmerman also felt that there was a jurisdictional issue. You see Mr. Siegal and the Plaintiff are both based in Southern California, yet chose to file the suit in Northern California. This would seem to be very odd, however Mr. Siegel feels that due to the way BitTorrents work, if you are in a swarm then you are under national jurisdiction. Judge Zimmerman appears to feel differently.
Now the question is what will Judge Zimmerman do? If he dismisses the case based on failure to respond then the cycle will continue. This is very likely what Mr. Siegel would like to have happen. It would remove the scrutiny from him for a while and then allow him to pick up where he left off. If Judge Zimmerman finds him in contempt, fines him and then tosses him in jail along with a nice complaint to the Bar things could be very different. It could set precedence in these cases and in some perhaps even allow for further appeals.  We hope that since Judge Zimmerman was smart enough to recognize the scam in the first place he will see the second one and take the appropriate actions.  Let’s face it most of these suits are nothing more than extortion with the US Court system’s approval and while it is perfectly reasonable to protect Intellectual Property it is not right by any means to abuse the system the way the MPAA and RIAA have done.

Source TorrentFreak
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